Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The 21-year-old student who posted nude
pictures of his former fiancée on facebook, in retaliation for being dumped by
her, was Tuesday jailed six months.

Henry Alibah, who posted the nude pictures
on November 25, 2013, after a 10-minute ultimatum to the complainant had elapsed,
looked shaken and bewildered after he was sentenced by the Accra Circuit Court.

Covering himself with a piece of cloth to
conceal his face from cameras, the convict attempted to hit at photographers
but the photographers ran for cover.

Passing sentence, the presiding judge, Ms
Ellen Vivian Amoah, held the view that the action of the convict was
pre-meditated and thus needed to be treated with all the seriousness it
deserved to serve as a deterrent to others.

Citing numerous legal authorities from both
Commonwealth nations and the United States of America (USA), Ms Amoah held that
revenge pornography or involuntary pornography caused incalculable damage to
the reputation of victims.

According to the court, there was the need
to deter others who embarrassed, caused emotional pain, anxiety and stigmatised
their targets by posting nude pictures which had the potential to go viral
globally immediately after posting.

Crime was pre-meditated

The victim had dated the convict for two
years but ended the relationship three months ago. Alibah did not take kindly
to the breakup and pleaded with the complainant to rescind her decision.

Realising she was not prepared to continue
with the relationship, Alibah called her on November 25, 2013 and gave her a
10-minute ultimatum to change her mind or risk having her nude pictures posted
on facebook.

He carried out the threat after the
ultimatum had elapsed. He then added the caption, “Porn star, pay and f***”.

Alibah proceeded to attach his former
fiancee’s mobile phone number to the uploaded picture for interested persons to
call.

Taking evidence into consideration and the
fact that the convict had admitted wrongdoing, the presiding judge held that it
was evident his action was pre-meditated.

“He warned, waited and carried out the
threat,” Ms Amoah opined, and indicated that it was important for the court to
send the signal that such crimes would not be tolerated.

Describing the case as “novel but not new
in other jurisdictions,” the court considered the nature of the crime, the
punishment for it, the manner of the crime committed, age of the convict, being
a first offender, the interest of the society, as well as the interest of the
victim before passing the sentence.

Facebook, she said, had been widely used by
people to connect in order to share information but indicated that others had
abused it the world over by using it to intimidate and post nude and
embarrassing pictures of their victims as forms of reprisals.

Cyber bullying, she indicated, was on the
rise and had accordingly caused fear, scarred some victims for life, caused
intimidation, emotional abuse, loss of jobs and other challenges for some other
victims .

The court held that due to the immediacy
with which facebook, which had 1.1 billion users in 2013, transmitted data, it
was obvious the nude pictures of the complainant had been shared globally and
even stored in some quarters.

Counsel for the convict, Mr Gad Cobbinah,
announced his intention to appeal against the court’s decision.